Shape-Up And Checkup: LA Barbers To Start Testing Blood Pressure

Dwight Woods has his blood pressure checked by nursing student Meghan Welsh at a St. Louis barbershop in 2009. A new study in LA will train barbers to take clients' blood pressure themselves in order to address the problem of hypertension among African-American men.

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Originally published on June 29, 2014 1:14 pm

Barbershops are a traditional gathering place for African-American men — a place to talk politics, sports and gossip. Now, some doctors in Los Angeles are hoping to make the barbershop a place for combating high blood pressure among black men.

Death rates from hypertension are three times higher in African-American men than in white men of the same age, says Dr. Ronald Victor, the director of Cedars-Sinai Center for Hypertension in Los Angeles.

"Hypertension is one of the biggest reasons why the life expectancy of African-American men is only 69 years," Victor says. "That's a full decade less than white men in this country."

This week, he received an $8.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to fund a study testing whether barbershop intervention could significantly lessen hypertension in African-American men.

The study will involve getting barbers around the city trained to take their patients' blood pressure. Victor is working with Dr. Anthony Reid, a cardiologist in nearby Inglewood, on the project.

Reid says most of his patients are African-American. "My patients like me, but they love the barber, and they'd much rather go to see the barber than the doctor, typically," Reid says.

"The idea is, instead of starting out by asking patients, as usual, to come in to the hallowed halls of medicine, we're bringing medicine to the people who need it," Victor says.

A few years ago, Victor had success with a similar project in Dallas — albeit on a much smaller scale.

One of the barbers he worked with then, James Smith, has been shaping up, lining up and fading men's hair in Dallas for 41 years. He says his customers are like family.

"We still do it," Smith says. "We have the machine there and now everybody's conscious of it. Some of them will come in and be like, 'Hey, man, take my blood pressure, check my blood pressure.' You know, they'll come in and ask you to check it; you don't have to check it for them."

Victor and Reid say they'll work with about two-dozen barbershops in LA and will track at-risk patients for at least 18 months. They have partnerships with low-cost health clinics, and Reid says he'll see patients who may not have insurance or who are cash-strapped.

"The ultimate cost is lessened if we treat your hypertension now, as opposed to your kidney disease and hemodialysis and your stroke and your heart attack downstream," Reid says.

If the Los Angeles study goes well, the doctors say, they hope to scale this up and enlist barbers across the country to help fight hypertension.

Copyright 2014 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

Transcript

LYNN NEARY, HOST:

Barbershops are a traditional gathering place for African-American men - a spot to talk politics and sports, and to gossip. Now some doctors in Los Angeles are hoping to make the barbershop a place for combating high blood pressure among black men. NPR's Shereen Marisol Meraji reports.

SHEREEN MARISOL MERAJI, BYLINE: Death rates from hypertension are three times higher in African-American men than white men of the same age, says Dr. Ronald Victor.

DR. RONALD VICTOR: Hypertension is one of the biggest reasons why the life expectancy of African-American men is only 69 years. That's a full decade less than white men in this country.

MERAJI: Victor heads the Center for Hypertension at Cedar's Sinai in Los Angeles. He just got $8.5 million this week from the National Institutes of Health to get barbers around the city trained to take their patient's blood pressure. He's working with Dr. Anthony Reid on the study. Reid's a cardiologist in nearby Inglewood, and most of his patients there are African-American.

DR. ANTHONY REID: My patients like me, but they love the barber. And they'd much rather go to see the barber than the doctor, typically.

VICTOR: And the idea is instead of starting out by asking patients as usual to come into the hallowed halls of medicine, we're bringing medicine to the people who need it.

MERAJI: Victor had success with something like this a few years ago in Dallas, Texas, but on a much smaller scale. Here's one of the barbers he worked with.

MERAJI: James Smith has been shaping up, lining up and fading men's hair in Dallas for 41 years. He says his customers are like family.

SMITH: So it was easy for me to do that and just say well, look brother, how's your blood pressure? You know, how's your health?

MERAJI: And, Smith says, of all the men he asked to check, only two said no.

SMITH: We still do it. We have the machine there. And now everybody's conscious of it. Some of them will come in and say hey, man, take my blood pressure, check my blood pressure. You know, they'll come in and ask you to check it. You don't have to check it for them.

MERAJI: The doctors say they'll work with about two dozen barbershops in LA and will track at-risk patients for at least 18 months. They have partnerships with low-cost health clinics. And Dr. Reid says he'll see patients who may not have insurance or are cash-strapped.

MERAJI: If the Los Angeles study it goes well, the doctors say they hope to scale this up and it enlist barbers across the country to help fight hypertension. Shereen Marisol Meraji, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.